Attachment for automatic quadruple staying machine



Aug. 14, 1962 E. F. REPP 3,049,061

ATTACHMENT FOR AUTOMATIC QUADRUPLE STAYING MACHINE Filed Oct. 10, 1961 FIG. I.

INVENTOR EDWIN F. REPP BJQEJW ATTORNEY.

United States Patent York Filed Oct. 10, 1961, Ser. No. 144,093 3 Claims. (Cl. 9341) This invention relates to box-making machines, and, in particular, to that class in which a descending form shaped like a six-sided rectangular block-strikes a cruciform paper-board blank centrally positioned on the'upper of two pairs of guide rails, and pushes the blank down between the pairs of guide rails which fold the wings of the blank up against the sides of the form to make an unstayed box shell that is next stayed by four stayers which move in diagonally against the corners of the shell and aifix thereto adhesive tape that has been folded longitudinally 90 to connect adjacent wings together. In machines of this class the downward movement of the form is unchangeable, and, since the height of the form determines the depth of the shell, the maximum depth of shell that may be made is fixed by the maximum height of form that may be accommodated by the machine.

The general object of the invention is to provide a novel and simple attachment for machines of this class whereby a higher form, and therefore a deeper shell, are suitable to the machine without changing the basic means by which the form is drawn downward.

Machines of this class are numerous, but all of them follow generally the art as established years ago by Smith; and apparently the present attachment is adaptable to all of them. In these machines a rigid assembly, of which the form is a part, is reciprocated up and down. In some of the machinesand one of these has been selected to illustrate the invention-the assembly comprises a yoke made up of two uprights connected together at the top by a cross-beam, a bar fixed to and depending from the cross-beam, and the form mounted on the lower end of the bar. Obviously, the distance through which the form may move is predetermined, as is the depth of the deepest shell.

A particular object of the invention is to dispense with the bar depending from the cross-beam of the yoke, and to replace it with a rod movable up and down through a suitable sleeve provided in the cross-beam, and to provide means whereby a higher form may be fixed to the bottom of the rod, yet have the level of its bottom equal to that of the present form when the yoke is at its uppermost position, and have the level of its top equal to that of the present form when the yoke is at its lowermost positiontwo requisites to avoid other changes in the machine.

In machines of this class, since shells are formed by the folding of the wings of the blank up against the sides of the form, the deepest possible shell is that in which the length of the wings of the blank is equal to the height of the form. Plainly the shape of the form is that of the inside of the shell desired.

These and other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will be more fully understood from the following description and from the drawing.

In the drawing:

FIGURE 1 is an elevational view, much erased, of the upper part of a box-making machine, showing a yoke in its uppermost position with the present attachment applied thereto.

FIGURE 2 is another elevational view of the upper part of the machine, showing the yoke in its lowermost position with the present attachment applied thereto.

In machines of this class there is little space between the bottom of the form and the top of the upper pair of guide railsnot much more than enough to permit of the introduction of the paper-board blank-when the yoke is in its uppermost position. For this reason, one of the problems presented, and solved herein, in providing a higher form is that the bottom of the latter form must, when the yoke is up, be on the same level as that of the bottom of the former form.

Since the downward movement of the yoke is fixed it would avail nothing to mount a higher form on the lower end of the usual rigid bar described above.

Herein the bar is dispensed with and a rod axially movable in the sleeve provided in the cross-beam of the yoke. In the drawing, the yoke comprises two uprights 10 and 11 and a connecting cross-beam 12 at the top. The movable yoke is partly housed, at its sides, by guards 13 and 14, here shown in section. Guard 14 is slotted at 15, and a stop 16, supported by an upright 17 attached in any suitable manner to the side of the machine, is inserted into the slot at its top. Through a sleeve provided in the center of the cross-beam 12 is an axially movable rod :18, the upper end portion of which is threaded and upon which is a nut 19. Pivoted for rocking in a vertical plane at 20 on the cross-beam is a lever 21. One end of the lever is forked and fitted partly around the upper part of rod 18 beneath nut 19, and, when the yoke is up, as in FIGURE 1, the other end of lever 21 is engaged by the stop 16 and held in the position shown, wherein its forked end raises the rod 18 with respect to the yoke.

Mounted on the lower end of rod 18 is a higher than usual form 22; and surrounding rod 18 between the crossbeam 12 and the top of the form 22 is a compression spring 23. The dimension index X, in FIGURE 1, shows the difference in height between the usual form and form 22. As an actual example found feasible in an application of the attachment to a box-making machine on the market it was seen to be possible to substitute for a form 4 /2" high a new form 5% high. In that case the dimension X would be 4;", a considerable difference in box-making.

When the yoke is in its uppermost position, as in FIGURE 1, the stop 16 depresses the end of the lever it engages, thereby raising the forked end of the lever, and with it, the nut 19, the rod 18, and the form 22, and compressing spring 23. It will be noted in both figures that that end of the lever engaged by stop 16 moves freely within the slot at 15 during movement of the yoke. As the yoke descends the spring 23 is enabled to expand, and, as it does so, it moves form 22 away from crossbeam 12, and rod 18 moves downward with respect to the yoke, bringing nut 19 down toward the cross-beam, and, as lever 21 disengages stop 16 the lever is free to be rocked by the nut into the position shown in FIG- URE 2.

The movement of form 22 away from the cross-beam is equal in distance to the dimension X, mentioned above. Thus it will be noted that when the yoke is in its uppermost position the bottom of higher than usual form 22 is held at the normal level of the bottom of the customary form by the action of the lever 21 upon nut 19, but when the yoke is in its lowermost position the top of form 22 is then at the normal level of the top of the customary form because of the expansion of spring 23. Therefore it is seen that the attachment makes possible the use of a higher form without changing the basic means for lowering and raising the yoke, and without changing the guide rail and stayer arrangement.

In the drawing, the unfolded blank (FIGURE 1) is indexed 24; its folded wings are designated 25 (FIGURE 2). The guides for the unfolded blank 24 are indexed 26, the upper guide rails 27, the only visible lower guide rail 28, thestayers (only two visible) 29, and the stays (adhesive tape) 30. v

In FIGURE 1 the dot-and-dash line indexed 31 indicates the common level of the bottom of a displaced lower form and of the substituted higher form, and the dot-anddash line 32 indicates where the bottom of the lower form would be were it atfixed to the lower end of rod 18. In FIGURE 2, the index 33 indicates the common level of the top of the displaced lower form and of the substituted higher form. The levels indicated by 31 and 33 are critical if other parts of the box-making machine are to remain unchanged-particularly the upper pair of guide rails 27 and the stayers 29.

What is claimed is:

1. In a box-making machine employing a parallelepiped form against which a blank is folded to make a shell, a vertically reciprocating member for moving the form up and down, a rod vertically movable through a sleeve provided in the member and carrying the form at its lower end, and means for bringing the form nearer the member when the latter is in its uppermost position and for moving the form farther away from the member when the latter is in its lowermost position, the upper end of the rod above the member being provided with a head, a lever pivoted on the member with one end between the member and the head and the other end engaging a fixed detent on the machine for rocking the lever to raise the head when the member approaches its uppermost position, and a compression spring surrounding the rod beneath the member and above the form for lowering the rod when the member moves away from its uppermost position.

2. In a box-making machine employing a parallelepiped form against which a blank is folded to make a shell, a vertically reciprocating member for moving the form up and down, a rod vertically movable through a sleeve provided in the member and carrying the form at its lower end, and means for bringing the form nearer the member when the latter is in its uppermost position and for moving the form farther away from the member when the latter is in its lowermost position, the upper end of the rod above the member being provided with a head, a lever pivoted on the member with one end between the head and the member and the other end engaging a fixed detent on the machine for rocking the lever to raise the rod as the member approaches its uppermost position to bring the bottom of the form to a certain level when the member reaches such position, and a compression spring surrounding the rod beneath the member and above the form for lowering the rod when the member moves away from its uppermost position to bring the top of the form to another certain level when the member reaches its lowermost position. a a a 3. In a box-making machine in which a shell is made by folding a cruciform paperboard blank against five sides of a parallelepipedonal form, a vertically disposed yoke adapted to reciprocate up and down, a rod movable vertically through a sleeve provided in the top center of the yoke, a form attached to the lower end of the rod, and means for raising the form a particular distance with respect to the yoke when the latter is up and for lowering the form that distance with respect to the yoke when the latter is down, said form-raising means comprising a head on the top of the rod, a lever pivoted on the yoke for rocking in a vertical plane with one end engaging the head invariably and the other end adapted to engage a detent fixed on the machine as the yoke approaches its uppermost position for raising the form with respect to the yoke, and a compression spring surrounding the rod beneath the yoke and above the form for lowering the latter as the yoke moves away from its uppermost position.

Saltzkorn et al. July 11, 1891 Straw June 16, 1953 

